5 Key Things You Need To Do To Stay Productive In Difficult Times

It has been a very difficult and uncertain time for a lot of people all over the world, no thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. What makes this particularly worse is that no one is certain where this is heading or when the light at the end of the tunnel would be seen. Hence, it’s very easy to be a news sucker while unconsciously giving yourself the excuse of wanting to know what’s happening ‘in the world’. However, this comes at the expense of your productivity.

It is quite understandable that you might probably be in an uncomfortable situation which could make your productivity hindered.

I reflected on a few things that have helped me stay productive and here I am making it available to you:

• Limit Your Consumption Of The News
  This might sound counter-intuitive, but staying away from the news has helped me have a focused mind. Of course, it’s okay to catch up on news updates in the morning and then at evening time just to stay informed, but when you start to ‘follow the news’, you are setting yourself up for frustration. If you are the person that knows the current number of COVID-19 infections every time (and your profession or job doesn’t exactly need you to), then there are huge chances that you won’t be able to see beyond the damages. A piece of advice, spend less time on social media and limit the amount of ‘tracking the news’ as well.
• Understand Your Reality
  In a time like this, everyone copes differently, so do not compare yourself to anyone. Be sure of your present situation in its truest form. For example, If you need to work through the use of a computer, do you have a functional one? What are your alternatives? Also, do you have a section you can create for yourself in your home? Do you have kids around who might ‘need your attention’ once in a while? How do you plan to make things work? For me, I had to evaluate my current situation, list out things that are to my advantage and those that could be a disadvantage. Then I had to find ways to reduce the effect of the things that could be a disadvantage while devising ways to cope with things I can’t change at all.
• Make Yourself Comfortable
  Now that you are sure of your reality, innovate ways to make yourself feel more comfortable. I advise you to embrace an ‘I can make it work’ mindset, you need to literally ‘tell yourself’ that you are going to make the best of what you have. At this point, you will start having ideas on ways to make things better.
  For me, I had always been comfortable working from anywhere, if I’m on a long trip, I could just get working on the trip. However, the bulk of my work time in the past was in my office, I didn’t particularly consider ‘home’ as a place I should work from for an extended period. But with the “stay at home” modality, I had to find a way to restructure my room and then create a section/space that gets me in that work mode. I had to buy a few things, which is just part of the investment I needed to make and it was worth it.
• Create A Routine
  What creating a routine does is that it helps you understand what you should be doing per time. You see, now that you don’t have to ‘wake up early’ to prepare for work, commute to your workplace or have specified break time and closing time at work, you might unconsciously burn that time doing things that are quite irrelevant. Situations like what we are in now will test your self-leadership.
  I created a routine, with a specific wake up time, work out time, mediation time, time to take a course, time to attend to work I have a break time (which is the same as my break time during my normal work from office time). This helps me recalibrate when it seems I am spending too much time on a particular thing.
• Have A Goal
  Be clear and sure of what you want to achieve at the end of each day, week and month. This would keep you motivated when it feels like there is no need to be productive.

I hope these tips help you stay productive. Please drop feedback in the comment section.

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